Movies of video games. Yes, we know about those. Movies about board games though? I’m sure this particular feat has been achieved before, but the only thing that comes to mind that’s remotely related are the D&D films, and that’s technically a pen-and-paper RPG. Settlers of Catan on the other hand… where does one even begin?

1 August 2013

“Part of our brand,” explains the sonorous French voice on the phone, “is coming from the fact we do very few things. Porsche is the most successful car company in the world from the business standpoint, but they do very few models… we take the same approach in the board game business.”

9 May 2012

Canadian filmmaker Jay Cheel once worked for video game developer Silicon Knights, but in his 10-minute documentary The Politics of Competitive Board Gaming Amongst Friends, he focuses instead on tabletop gaming, casting his camera on his own friends while they play The Settlers of Catan. It’s a beautiful, funny, and poignant look at how competition and friendship intersect when gaming dominance is on the line.

24 December 2011

It’s Christmas. You’re friends and family are together for that special time of the year to give, receive and eat. Once all the presents have been passed around and the food consumed, someone recommends you pull out Monopoly or Scrabble to pass the time. You sigh, knowing there’s a whole other world of board and card games your relatives are oblivious to. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to gently introduce them to this fabulous alternate universe?

Last month we took a close look at a new version of classic board game Settlers of Catan, one being readied for Microsoft’s giant touch-screen computer. Since then, a new build of the game has been released.

24 July 2009

Settlers of Catan, the award-winning resource-allocation and strategy board game, will have a version on the iPhone and iPod Touch “this summer,” developed in conjunction with Catan’s creator, according to the game’s official website.